Sweltering Wednesday in Kolkata, thunderstorms likely in Bengal

Kolkata had a hot and oppressively humid day on Wednesday, even as the weatherman predicted thunderstorms over the next 48 hours at a couple of places of Gangetic West Bengal, covering the districts in the southern part of the state.

The maximum city temperature during the day was 37.4 degree Celsius, a degree above the average. The minimum recorded temperature was 28.5 degree Celsius, two degrees above average.

The humidity ranged between a high of 86 percent and low of 51 percent.

The heat and humidity inconvenienced those out on the streets, while ice cream sellers and cold drink stalls made a killing.

"There is no rainfall prediction over the next 24 hours. But there is possibility of thundershowers at a couple of places in Gangetic west Bengal in the next 48 hours," an official at the Regional Meterorological Office, Alipore, told IANS.